3DS hardware and software died down due to lack of strong titles, though Wii U rose through Mario Kart 8.
☆ NintendObs Event – Nintendo Q2 FY3/2015.
As Mr. Tatsumi Kimishima has just explained in the financial figure outline, the balance of revenue and expenses improved in the second quarter. While operating income was close to break-even during the low sales season of this six-month period with few key title releases, it moved back into the black in the three-month period of the second quarter.
As a general trend, for Nintendo 3DS during this six-month period, there were few key titles which had a meaningful impact on the market compared to the same period of the previous year. As a result, sales units of the Nintendo 3DS hardware and software declined. On the other hand, for Wii U, the release of “Mario Kart 8” in May and announcements at E3 in June contributed to improving people’s expectations for the Wii U platform. As such, the Wii U hardware and software are selling more than the level of the previous year.
Even though the balance of revenue and expenses improved, total net sales decreased in comparison with the previous year.
The main cause for the decrease in sales for the first half of the term is that the sales of Nintendo 3DS in Japan have temporarily been slow moving and declined compared to the last term. In 2012 and 2013, we maintained a very high level of sales in the domestic market for Nintendo 3DS throughout the year. As you can see from the software sales in the first half of each of the past three years, we have kept our software business at a certain size regardless of the release timing of big titles, but the hardware sales have had less momentum this year.
The sales from the launch of New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL on October 11 are not reflected in these graphs. These products have made a good start, which I will elaborate on later. We anticipate that we will get out of the temporary lull of the domestic Nintendo 3DS market and catch up in the latter half with penetration of the new hardware.
Unlike the previous Corporate Management Policy Briefing held in January, we are now in the period just before the year-end sales season, the largest sales opportunity for the video game industry. I therefore would like to take some time to tell you about the current situation and our prospects for the upcoming sales season.
— Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo
Source: Nintendo JP.
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